Use of RFID RC522

New member

Hi there,
I wish to use an RFID RC522 in a circuit to turn a servo for a school project but am unsure on the circuit i need; how to add it to the circuit and how to program my PICAXE chip with instructions on how to respond by opening and closing my lock.
Cheers and gone!

Technical Support

The RC522 can apparently use SPI, I2C and serial so it should be fairly easy to interface that to a PICAXE. Which you can use may depend on which breakout board you are using.

That it should be possible to interface it to a PICAXE doesn't however mean anyone has actual done it or there is PICAXE example code available. It has been mentioned a few times but I don't recall anyone posting code which uses it.

None the less it should be possible. The best approach would be to break the project into separate parts; interfacing with the module, interfacing with your servo, detecting the ID from a card, determining if a valid code, and activating the lock if it is. Get the individual parts working and it should all work as a whole.

What previous PICAXE, electronics, and interfacing experience do you have ?

Senior Member

The interface to the RC522 is straightforward; the code necessary to operate it is not. I have several RC522 now operational but not with PICAXE - which was my original intention - but with another system that is based on 32-bit PICs. It is quite a programming challenge to write PICAXE code for this device.

Senior Member

A search of the picaxe forurm for RC522 does not come up with anyone who has written code for this chip, so that will make it much more difficult.
Can you give us a link to the module that you have? A look at the datasheet might enable the forum to help you read data from this module.